Display device or container for silverware, etc.



Jan; 9,1923.

J. L. LEE.

DISPLAY DEVICE 0R CONTAINER FOR SILVERWARE, ETC.

FILED M15, 1922.

ATTORNEY.

JOHN LOLO LEE, OF SHERBILL, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO ONEIDA COMMUNITY,

LIMITED, "ONEIDA, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

DISPLAY DEVICE OB, CONTAINER FOR SILVERWARE, ETC.

Application filed May 15, 1922. Serial at. 561,232.

'Sherrill, county of Oneida, State of New York, have made a certain new and useful Invention Relating to Display Devices or Containers for Silverware, Etc, of which the'following is a specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, which forms part of the same.-

This invention relates especially to dis play devices such as trays or boxes for silverware or other generally similar articles in which the tray or box bottom has secured thereto slotted or recessed spacing blocks provided with covering. cloth of velvet or other woven or knit fabric including backed or special grades of paper which is preferably first tucked into the slots or recesses and then folded against the sides of each block so as to form, if desired, one or more vertical or preferably inclined article retaining folds or flaps extending more or less transversely across the slot ends. Each blockand its folded covering cloth may be forced up through the inner or false bottom member that may be formed with apertures or slots engaging the covered blocks fairly tightl on their sides and when the blocks have een forced to substantally the desired extent through the apertured inner lining member which may be formed of wood or of cardboard, pressboard, fibre board etc.,

which are hereinafter referred to as paper the covering cloth being thus securely" united to the bottom of the tray or box to which the spacing blocks may also be glued if desired so that the folded covering cloth forms a more or less elastic, strong holding member for the blocks in case their direct glued connection is broken or loosened for any reason. This arrangement also leaves the covering cloth in; stretched elastic condition which may be free from any direct or glued connection with the block sides, or

even the block top if desired and extending in the form of one inclined fold or preferably of cooperating scissors folds or crosslng transverse article retaining folds or flaps ly1ng in inclined position across the ends of the article supporting slots which may be of. uniform Width and either straight or ,inclined or given the form of -V-shaped or curved recesses to suit the particular shape of the knife, fork or other silverware or other article to be supported. These some- What elastic retaining folds thus yieldingly' hold the article and also minimize Wear on the fabric, and in case only a single fold extends across one end of the supporting slot this elastic pressure forces the article against the opposite cloth covered side of the slot so as to securely and yieldingly support the article in the desired positlon While allowing ready disengagement when the article is to be removed from the display device, box or tray. These article retaining folds also make it possible to securely hold different sized or shaped articles in the same slot and thus a single or standard size of such covered spacing blocks ,.may be used for different patterns or sizes of silverware articles, and

in many cases the silverware may be effectively shipped in these display devices, trays or boxes, which are much stronger and more reliable than those having the regular spacing blocks formed with separate glued on side and top covering members of velvet or the like, which are naturally much more expensve to manufacture. Furthermore, the paper board inner bottom member which may be glued directly to the wooden or other bottom of the tray or box bottom between two adjacent spacing blocks may be readily bowed or curved up to a considerable extent where the covered spacing blocks extend through apertures in this inner bottom member which thus has a sufficiently curved or arched form to materially strengthen and stiffen the bottom of the tray or box and thisis of decided advantage when the bottom is also formed of paper board or the like.

In the accompanying drawing showing in a somewhat diagramatic manner various illustrative embodiments of this invention:

Fig. l is a top view of an illustrative tray or box shown partly in perspective.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section thereof taken substantially along the line 22 of Fig. l with the outer box or container removed.

Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged views of the spacing blocks showing the folding of the covering cloth.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged transverse section thereof taken substantially along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4 and showingthe block applied to the tray or box bottom, and

Fig. 6 shows the folding of the covering cloth around another form of spacin block.

The silverware container or disp ay vdevice may be in the form of a tray, box or chest and may have any suitable outer and cover portions within which the tray or box forming the particular part of this inven tion may be removably mounted if desired, it being understood that in some cases these trays may be used as separate unit containers and placed in drawers or cabinets, if desired, or used to carry the silverware durin its regular use. The tray 1, may, as indicated In Fig. 1, have any desired arrangement of spacing blocks such as 3, 4 and 5 to accommodate the various silverware or other articles such as 2, the supporting slots or recesses 8 in the spacing blocks being so proportioned and arranged as to support the articles, preferably during shipment, as well as when the articles are displayed for sale and during the regular use of the silverware by'the ultimate purchaser or owner.

As shown in greater detail in Fig. 2, these spacing blocks such as 3,4 may be formed of wood of the desired height and thickness and may be provided with the desired number of supporting slots or recesses such as 6 which may either be straight or inclined where they are of substantially uniform width. It is highly advantageous to apply the covering cloth or material to the spacing blocks as indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, this velvet or other cloth, backed paper, etc. being preferably first forced down into the bottom of each slot 6 so that the portions 8 of the fabric line the sides of the slots while other portions 7 extend fairly smoothly over the top portions of the spacing block 5 between these slots. Then the folds or extra amount of cloth which is thus present at the sides of the block is preferably arranged in the form of inclined folds extending transversely across one or both ends of the supporting slots or recesses, the inner folds 10 preferably extending across the slots in one direction while the outer folds 11 are preferably arranged in oppositely inclined position so as to form scissors folds which have a highly desirable yielding en-- gagement with the articles as indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, the edges 19 of this covering cloth preferably extending a considerable distance below the supporting blocks. The supporting blocks and supporting or strengthening cloth edges are then preferably glued or otherwise secured tothe bottom of the tray, box, or other display device so that these elastic article retaining flaps or folds can act to yieldingly retain in position the articles inserted into the slots and have suflicient yielding action to accommodate different sized or thickness articles, if dc ing blocks so as to extend or stretch the same when they are forced up through these recesses in the inner bottom member which may have glued or otherwise secured thereto a velvet or other cloth lining 15 if desired. In many cases it is desirable to glue the upper portions of these cloth edges to the inner member as by glue or other adhesive 20 shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The inner bottom member may be inserted into the display device or tray 1 which may have its sides covered with velvet or other ornamental covering material 26, if desired, and the bottom 12 of the tray is preferably glued throughout such portions as are adapted to come into contact with the blocks and other inserted elements, a heavy coating of thick or strong glue or other adhesive 17, 18 being applied not only beneath the spacing blocks and the adjacent supporting cloth edges, but also at least at such intermediate portions as 16 where the yielding inner bottom'member may be forced down into substantial contact with the tray or box bottom so as to be strongly glued or secured in this somewhat arched-l up position which considerably reenforces and stiflens the bottom of the completed display vdevice. When the parts have been adhesively secured together in this way the somewhat tensioned article retaining folds of the covering cloth elastically hold down the spacing blocks 3, 4

so that even if the glued or other connection between the bottoms of the blocks and the tray bottom is cracked or broken the blocks are elastically held in the desired position.

Fig. 6 shows the manner in which covering is not only very much quicker and cheaper than to cut and fit the covering cloth and adhesively secure it throughout the exposed surfaces of the spacing blocks, but in addione or both sides of the slot and prevented tion very much better results are secured and even with relatively inexpensive display devices or containers of this character the covering cloth or material yieldingly supports the articles inserted in the slots in the spacing blocks so that they are cushioned 'on from rattling or working against each other to an undesirable extentwhere several articles are inserted in the slot so that very much better results are secured, especially where the articles are shipped considerable distances in the containers or display devices in which they are subsequently sold and used.

This invention has been described in connection with a number of illustrative embodiments, forms, arrangements, parts, devices and materials, order of steps and methods of manufacture and use, to the details of which disclosure the invention is not of course to be 'limitedsince what is claimed as new and What is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

' 1. The silverware display device, comprising a wooden tray or box bottom, a cooperating inner bottom member provided with apertures of such size as to tightly engage the sides of the cpvered spacing blocks, wooden spacing bloclis formed with article supporting slots and having their bottoms glued to the bottom of said display device, imperforate strips of velvet covering cloth extending into said supporting slots and folded against the sides of each spacing block to form elastic article retaining folds extending across the ends ofeach slot toyieldingly engage and hold articles, the laterally projecting edges of the covering cloth being glued to the bottom of the display device to form elastic retaining members for the'b locks in case they become loosened.

2. The display device for silverware etc. comprising a bottom, spacing blocks formed with article supporting slots and having their bottom secured to the bottom of said display device, strip-s of covering cloth extending into said supporting slots and folded against the sides of each spacing block to form elastic article retaining folds ex-' tending across the ends of said slots to yieldingly engage and hold articles, the laterally projecting edges of the covering glued to the bottom of the disp ay device."

3. The-i'display device for silverware, etc. comprising a bottom, a cooperating inner bottom member provided with apertures, spacing blocks extending through said apertures and formed with article supporting slots and having their bottoms secured to the bottom of said display device, substantially continuous strips of covering cloth extending into said supporting slots and folded cloth being edges of the covering cloth being glued to the bottom of .the display device to form elastic retaining members for the blocks in case they become loosened. 5. The display device for silverware etc. comprising a bottom, spacing blocks formed with article supporting slots and having their bottoms secured to the bottom of said display device, strips of covering clothextending into said supporting slots and folded against the sides of each spacing block to form elastic article retaining folds extending across the ends of said slots to yieldingly, engage and hold articles, the laterally projecting edges of the coverin cloth being secured adjacent the bottom of the display device.

6. The display device for silverware etc. comprising a bottom, a cooperating inner bottom member provided with an aperture, a spacing block extending through said aperture and formedfwith article supporting slots and strips of covering cloth extending intosaid sup-porting slots and folded against the sides of said spacing block to form folds, the lateral edges of the covering cloth being secured adjacent the bottom of said spacing block.

7. The display device for silverware etc. comprising a spacing block formed with article sup-porting slots and a strip of covering cloth extending into said sup-porting slots and folded adjacent the sides of saidblock, the edges of the covering cloth being an article is inserted in said slot;

JOHN: LoLo LEE, 

